Coastal and Island preppers

Personally I prefer tequila though.

 

As long as you can breath, stay warm, eat.......and wash it down with Americas finest, whiskey.

I have several bottles waiting for this moment and plenty of food I canned myself to eat good.

 

in addition to the aforementioned 'goodies' , i have several all plastic, led flashlites (cheapo $2-$4) that use two AA batteries, the wholesale club sells a 100 pack for about $20 , the pack is about 5"x5"x2" so it's easy to stow. along with meds, the same club sells advil tablets in a 360 count bottle, last thing i want is to suffer while sufferin from a headache...

a tarp big enough to cover the roof: here's a link: https://www.tarpsupply.com/blue-tarp-40x60.html

space bags for clothing/bedding: https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&k...qmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_892a7yl6he_e

food: mostly dry/canned goods, freeze dried foods are convenient and don't take up much space ... mre's (the real ones) are good choice, get the 'heaters' to warm them up, saves on fuel

water: cases with 40- 16.9 oz bottles for the first few days, a small bottle (12oz) of regular unscented bleach to make potable water

 

Wow, that is a great way to die.

Bleach does not make water potable. Primarily, it is added to water after it has been purified to keep microorganisms and algae from being a problem. Add bleach to contaminated water, you just have contaminated bleachy water.

If you really want to protect yourself, build a simple still. Run the water through 2-3 times, then add a tad of bleach to keep it from becoming contaminated between distilling it and drinking it. A proper still will even remove almost all possible contaminants, both chemical and biological.

Bleach is only a "no other option" way to purify water. It is not very good, but it is better than nothing. It does absolutely nothing if say the water is contaminated by a truck in the water supply 2 miles upstream or from a ruptured sewer main.

 

it kills the pathogens, as fer the truck , fuels & oils & chemicals & raw sewage would be easily noticed... we were talking about in an emergency, wern't we...

the highlighted texts are in direct contradiction to each other

 

This is the thing, I do not believe in any kind of "collapse", short of a supervolcano or massive plague. And both of those will eventually happen, but within say a few centuries. Not likely in my lifetime.

No, I plan for more mundane disasters. Earthquakes, weather, fire. Maybe even a man-made one, like a chemical spill or when the idiot Governor orders a damn to be allowed to overtop instead of lowering the water when it starts to fail.

That was actually the last time I was all ready to move. RV loaded up, hooked up, literally we would have been on the road within 5 minutes of the warning siren going off.

Civil war, national anarchy, zombie apocalypse, alien invasion, nope. I do not plan for any of those. But even if I did, it would be the exact same plan. Load up, get out, head for the hills where I have a good chance to survive on my own.

This is the route I go. My BBQ can use the small cans, but I have a hose to let me use large 30 pound plus canisters. And with a few adapters I can even siphon off from a large permanent tank to refill my smaller ones.

And for those that prefer stoves, there are multi-fuel ones that can use propane, white gas and gasoline.

Actually, that is far-far from the truth. Look at what just happened in NC-GA, where several large bases were hit.

Want to know how the military handles a hurricane? "Here is a bunch of canteens and MREs. Sit in your room and wait it out."

Of course, Marines being Marines instead they tie ponchos to their wrists and ankles and instead go outside and pretend that they are Batman.

Yea, most bases do have lots of guns. But bombs and bullets? Nope. Those are kept far-far away. When I was at Fort Bliss even if we were given permission to get live ammo in the event of a zombie outbreak, it was a 35 mile drive each way to where the ammo was stored.

And today most have shut down their own water and power plants. Since most of them were oil burning, they have been shut down in the last decade or so and now they rely on the local community for water and power. And they are about as defendable as the US-Mexico border. Heck, most bases do not even really have perimeter fences other than right near a highway or major road. I knew at least 10 ways to drive onto Camp Lejeune and not pass a single gatehouse.

And in the CONUS, most families live off-base. In my 22+ years in the military, we have lived on base for only about a year and a half. Base housing largely sucks, and is expensive.

And they do not have the mobility you seem to think they have either. Unless it is an active combat arms or engineer unit, odds are they have only a few vehicles. My current unit for example has a single Dodge van. The unit we share the building with has a Dodge van, 3 HMMWVs, 4 5 ton trucks, and a wrecker. They do not even have a fuel truck, so once they get about 250 miles they are stuck.

 

You think other contaminants would be easily noticed?

Yea, good luck with that.

You seem to be confusing emergency and survival. They are not the same thing.

Emergency is 1-3 days, either to get through the initial crisis or to get out of the area. Survival is long-term.

Bleach is not a survival technique. It is an emergency technique in the event that your other system fails or is inadequate. Once you exhaust your supplies, you need to transform from emergency to survival mindset. Because that is what is going to get you through the long run.

Hence, my plan is always evacuation as the emergency phase, hunkering down and settle in for the survival phase. Now that hunker down may be in a WallMart parking lot, or it might be up in the Owyhee Mountains in Idaho. Depends on what the reason for my leaving is. In the first, survival supplies are bought, in the second I am distilling water and hunting and fishing.

 

This isn't about "mundane disasters", earthquake, weather, fire, chemical spill, are local and temporary problems. Local resources are overtaxed or simply nonexistent, but national resources are available. People can always leave the local area of disaster. That's not what this is about.

In a national collapse, the lone wolf surviving is tv land. Its not real world. An individual can plan to just pack up and head for the hills - along with the 1,000s of others who do the same. Some will be prepared, some will not be. Over times, as resources are depleted, people will start moving around. And resources will be depleted everywhere, the wild game will be hunted down.

The lone wolf will encounter increasingly desperate people, some unskilled and some very skilled. Its just a matter of time before the luck runs out, or a more skilled person wins, or injury or sickness takes its toll.

 

A National collapse does not "just happen". We are not going to wake up tomorrow to find ourselves in a huge Civil War, or that our economy has completely collapsed and out government has completely fallen apart. That is Fantasyland.

Such things take years, if not decades. Heck, a lot of people saw the US Civil War was coming as early as 1850 with the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Acts. There was even the Nashville Convention of 1850, which had representatives from 9 Southern States. And in multiple declarations endorsing secession.

No, anybody with half a brain would see such a collapse coming, and be preparing to get out of the locations that would surely be death traps. Like large cities (and most medium sized ones). Because if you wait until such a collapse happens, it is already to late.

Want an idea what such would look like? Look no further than the first 2 "Emberverse" books by S. M. Stirling.

To put it bluntly, most would die. They are not equipped to survive on their own, having absolutely no skills on how to survive. They can not hunt, they can not fish, they do not know how to grow or gather food. And they would strip the land for hundreds of miles around every major city in their search for food.

No, most will not "head to the hills". Most will believe the messages to remain calm and that help will come to them. And when the dying starts, they will fan out like locusts and devour everything in their path. Even each other. And there is no way even a group of "hardcore bunker survivalists" could withstand them. They would literally be like the unending waves of zombies in much of the popular fiction today.

The only hope would be to be remote, so that as few would reach you as possible. Ideally, at least 300 miles or more from any major cities and 100 miles from major highways. Because many would first try to drive away, and go as long as their gas holds out. They will be like sheep, sticking to the major roads. And most would not be able to travel more than 5 days before their food and water gives out.

You have to realize, I have been making survival plans for over 30 years now. Originally because of WWIII, then later for things like plague and natural disasters. And if anything, the history of plagues, disasters and collapses in our past has taught me is that staying put is the worst thing to do. Flee, go remote if people are a threat, and try to be invisible until things stabilize.

 

A few will see it, the vast majority will not.

For example, the signs of impending economic recessions and depressions show up well in advance but are never predicted by the majority. The signs of the recent housing collapse were there for years, some people even warned of it publicly, yet the government and most financial "experts" and the vast majority of people did not see or believe.

And the USA is in a deep financial crisis right now, the debt and deficit and social security and state pension obligations and even the private debt is worse than it was in 2006. And everyone is pretending its all ok.

Partly true. Most will die. Thats not the point, the point is to get the odds in your favor, and to survive well. A properly selected group maximizes your chances.

True, most will not head to the hills, but many people will. You are not the only one whose plan is to head for the hills, you will have "neighbors". And over time as the situation gets worse, as the local governments cannot feed people and those people get desperate and leave, others will start wandering around in those hills. The lone wolf will have encounters and every encounter brings risk. You reduce the risk by having people in your group.

And skill helps but does not trump a properly selected group. Even ignoring sickness and injury, one person cannot stay at 100% 24/7. And murphy.

 

That is because most do not want to realize that most things follow predictable patterns. They want to believe today is the same as yesterday, and tomorrow will be the same as the day before that.

Economies follow rather easy to follow patterns. Generally a recession every 7-10 years or so, if not influenced by outside factors. The Nixon Recession, the Carter Recession, the delayed Bush Sr. Recession, and the early Bush Jr. Recession. The Obama Recession, it all follows a rather predictable curve. And the longer a boom period, the stronger the recession. The longer the recession goes on, the longer the recovery period. And almost all are International events, it is the myopia that causes people to look only to the US.

And in the last 40 years, we have had an almost predictable slew of "bubbles" appear. And I have seen many come and go. Silver, Junk Bonds, Dot Com, Dot Com 2, Telecom, Real Estate, and others.

The most recent was Bit Coin. Remember when everybody was raging about how you need to get into it? Buy it all up, it is going through the roof! Bit Coin is the new future!

Well, it has lost half it's value since then, and all the people screaming it's praises have gone remarkably silent. Just another bubble, once again fed by greed on people who really do not understand the product.

I am old enough to remember quite a few economy booms as well as busts. And in the last 30 years I have actually predicted most of them at least a year or two out. One of the first was the Dot Com one, where I saw a large number of "Corporations" getting hyper-inflated in value, when they had few actual physical assets. I had a lot of friends loose their butts when they started to go belly-up, some had even been "paper millionaires" who lost everything when the collateral they used to buy homes, cars and the like became worthless and they could not replace the equity with other things of value.

I knew we were well into the Real Estate Bubble as early as 2003, when I saw the value of the home I grew up in (a Post-War era 2 bedroom 800 square foot bungalow in Encino) rise from the $85k I saw it valued at in 1994 being priced at $950k. And it rose to $1.1 million in 2007 just before the crash happened. This is the exact same house my parents sold in 1975 for $47k (and was last sold in 1977 for $49k). Today, the value is still overpriced I believe at $658k.

The home has been owned by a family owned investment group since 1977, and I often wonder if they regret not selling it 15 years ago when the market was high. I even talked to the son of the group owner in 1994, as my house was destroyed in the earthquake and I actually looked at renting it. We talked for about a half hour, on the irony that the son of a previous owner was interested in renting it. And that I had more knowledge of the home and it's interior configuration and quirks than he did.

No, the economy does not worry me. In fact, as somebody who remembers the "stagflation" of the Carter years, the 8 Obama years were largely the same. Simply no oil embargos to return the gas rationing of that era. And watching the Bit Coin boom, it reminded me a lot of the Silver Boom of the same era.

No, we will have more booms, and recessions. And we will have many more bubbles, it is simply how things are. I simply avoid them by never putting my money into such risky speculation. I also keep a very low credit level, living largely by cash and not buying things I can not afford. I have not financed a vehicle since 1995 - I have bought all of them since then like I had before, with cash.

Want a prediction for the next 5-8 years on the economy? Expect it to follow as it is now, a slow and gradual improvement. Nothing big and flashy like the Reagan Boom, but a gradual return of some industry which stimulates moderate growth. With at least 2 more booms in the meantime. The Bit Coin Bubble is over, and I am thinking the next boom (at this time) may be a Dot Com 3 bubble. Possibly akin to the "Baby Bell Boom" of the 1980's, as many companies break up (for inside reasons or forced by courts) and spawn competing entities that will fight with each other before ultimately merging again into 2 or 3 larger companies. Amazon, Google, and others are where I am watching for this to happen. But that may change, but it is where I am watching now.

And we still have a slew of overpriced Dot Com stocks out there. Companies that are still vastly overpriced, shown little profit even though they have been around for decades, and little assets to offset those high stock prices. Priceline (now Booking Holdings) has been on my watch list for a long time now. For a $20B corporation, they only have about $200M in hard assets. Even Montgomery-Ward and Circuit City had better holdings on paper than that company does, yet it's stock still sells at almost $2k per share. Their value 8 years ago was a more expected value of $225.

Yes, we are due for a Dot Com 3 bubble very soon. My friend who I mentioned before who was a millionaire? It was in Priceline stock. He was one of their first computer techs, and he bought his house when the stock was valued at $500. He lost everything when in the 2000 bust it fell to $20 a share.

 

Not enough. Not nearly enough.

Solar panels.
At least solars for your electronics. There are some portable foldable solars which are super cheap. You can get em everywhere. I even saw a few at KnifeWorks.

At least two powerful flashlights.
I'd get a thrower like the Klarus XT30, or some Eagle-Tac, and a flooder like the Niwalker Nova. And a ton of batteries.

Besides the MRE, I'd get beans and rice.
This stuff doesn't go bad for ages.

And let's not forget honey.
You need sugar for your insulin levels, and you need quick energy. Honey is the only food to never go bad.

I will most certainly have a lot of water purifying tablets, or charcoal filters.
You may not have clean water around you. You need to be able to clean water fast without boiling.

A CamelBak hydration systems for patrols.
There's no time to pull a bottle. Always drink on the go.

GoreTex clothes, pants, jacket, boots.
Pairs, not just one of each.

Binoculars, good for night observations.
Maybe Nikon 10x50.

EpiPen
Epinephrine shot. Must have.

And that's just part of the stuff. I'm casually writing it. I'll have to sit and make a full list one day.

That's not for natural disasters only. It's overall a very good list to have. I might also say "a must have" list.

 

What if your job is in city?

 

Job?

 

I mean for obvious reasons not everyone can "Load family into RV & Drive RV to freaking Arizona. Stay there until October."

 

And for similarly obvious reasons, not everybody can use one guy's hurricane preparedness plan.

Feel free to adjust it for your own situation, but the overall premise remains: get out of the way.

 

Or have this structure under ye premises:

 

When you're in there and you have 8 feet of polluted water with dead livestock floating in it over your roof, I'll briefly think of you as I watch the Arizona sunset over my macallen on the rocks.

 

You clever dandy.

But I'll build on top. I won't built in lowland, but rather on a hill. Then path of least resistance, water will always flow down (with gravity); so does the cattle.

 

Cheaper and safer to just go to Arizona. In fact, why not just build your concrete bunker there?

Heck, I just came up with the perfect hurricane plan for you: "get a job in Arizona."

 

I must admit. You beat me on this one.

Move meself to AZ, buy a house there, get bunkers in the Canyon. And...

Plot twist: Hurricanes come to Arizona. Rivers start to flow again between the walls of the Grand Canyon.

 

Man, if we ever see hurricanes in Arizona, we are all screwed! Watch out for the floating cow!

 

No, you got that wrong. You're DEAD WRONG. We're screwed if gypsies populate Wyoming. Arabescos are already populating Finland. People that lived for five thousands years in the sand are now moving to the ice. Something's seriously wrong. Now waiting for gypsies in Cheyenne.

 

should have used poured concrete, rebar re-enforced walls... those blocks are the weak link...

 

Are you in the construction?